maybe there's another way. >> this was all just a brilliant strategy by john boehner? >> it's all he had. look, the thing about being in the congressional leadership is it is not -- it's herding cats. you can't get them to do things they don't want to do. so they have to have a collective wisdom. when you have a giant influx of not just freshmen members of the house but people who are anti-politics in a certain kind of way from the tea party, anti-government, anti-compromise, when they come in to your group, it is impossible to lead. by the way, imt not someone who at any point criticized john boehner's leadership skills. i believe all those criticisms were misplaced. he had a problem with who got elected under his party banner. it's not that previous speakers were better leaders than he was. previous speakers didn't have as many crazy people in the room with him. >> that's a good point. >> let's see how much the republicans appreciate his sage counsel if he says guys, we have to hike rates. i'm waiting for that. speaking of that, lawrence, i know you were there in was